[Artemisia] Uprising--do I need to pack the WeedWhacker?

[Brian Johnson]

  I never had to do tobacco, but growing Xmas trees is labor-intensive, too. 
You plant in March, when the ground's barely thawed. There's never-ending 
hoeing and tractoring. Shearing in July and August (using a machete). And 
harvest starts in late October and continues into December. Mud and snow 
and pine needles. Oh my lord, the pine needles. Dense-needled 
plantation-grown trees have to be shaken before they're baled for shipping, 
because they've been sheared tightly enough that the dead, dry needles can't 
fall naturally. Chilblains on my hands from tying the baling string.... My 
biggest problem (besides the weather) was that I'm only 5'5", and our trees 
started at 6 ft, most of them, and went up from there, and handling 
something that much taller than you are can be a real pain. That, and 
forever not paying attention to where my hands were when shearing....
I don't miss the hard work so much, but I do miss the satisfaction that came 
afterwards. And the evenings, when all you could here were things like the 
neighbors cows going home for the evening, and the sound of the irrigation 
in nearby fields, and the plume of dust that hung in the air from cars going 
down the gravel road....(and I have NO doubt whatsoever, that my parents are 
nudging each other in the afterlife, and pointing at me, and laughing, 
because when I was a kid, my primary objective was to get the 
h-e-double-hockey sticks OFF that farm!)
--Maire 
  I fellow worker back East had a "cut your own" Christmas tree farm and talked about how easy it was and all the breaks he got for "farming" his property.  Of course, he only had 3 acres to deal with and had things as a more sedate pace as he was trying to get them to bush out more so that he had top quality trees.  I think he said that his trees took 2 to 3 years to get to where he wanted them.  What I did see of his trees, they were immaculate and he had the same people coming back year after year paying top dollar for his trees and the chance to cut their own tree and take it home for Christmas.  I'd like to try something similar one day.  That and growing most of my own food for myself and my family, getting off the grid as much as possible, and getting my life a little more "green."
   
  Brynki